The Investigative Project has published a report on complaints by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) that the U.S has blocked Saudi scholar Ayed al-Qarni (aka Awad Al-Qarn) from entering the country in order to attend a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood convention. The IP report begins:

IPT News December 27, 2012 The head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) vows to complain to U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials after they blocked a radical Saudi cleric from entering the country this week to attend a national Islamist conference in Chicago. Sheikh Ayed al-Qarni was scheduled to speak twice during the Muslim American-Society (MAS)/Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) national convention Dec. 22-25. But a statement released during the convention expressed ‘the unpleasant and saddening news’ that al-Qarni had been removed from his flight from Saudi Arabia despite having a visa from the U.S. embassy, and that he appears to be on the U.S. ‘no-fly list.’ Al-Qarni is described as ‘one of our great speakers’ and as someone known ‘for his logical discourse and balanced views, he promotes understanding and collaboration between all people, regardless of their faith, background, or language.’ Al-Qarni has advocated jihad in the past and his preaching on the subject has been described as influential among al-Qaida followers. CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad told an Arabic news outlet that he would protest al-Qarni’s exclusion with DHS and State Department officials. ‘We defend all Muslims who are subject to arbitrary measure, and by this logic, we will act but not formally plead, unless we obtain authorization from him.’ It’s an ironic protest to make in light of a public relations campaign orchestrated by CAIR’s Chicago chapter. ‘MyJihad’ aims to show non-Muslims that the term jihad is more about peaceful, personal attempts at overcoming challenges than about calls for violence and terror. Through Awad, also a listed speaker at the convention, CAIR is fighting to bring a Saudi cleric into the United States who has argued the exact opposite message. During a 2005 sermon flagged by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), al-Qarni called the jihad against American forces in Fallujah ‘a source of pride … downing their planes, destroying equipment, slaughtering them, taking them hostage, and proclaiming ‘Allah Akhbar’ from the mosques, and the worshippers and the preacher cursing them in their prayers, and then come others begging for forgiveness, and requesting a dialogue and a ceasefire and negotiations. Who can say even one word against this true Jihad against these colonialist occupiers?’ [Emphasis added]

An Israeli terrorism research center provides background on Al-Qarni and his 2008 fatwa calling for “attacks on Israeli interests worldwide”:

Many Islamic sites with forums which identify with the Global Jihad, reported on 28 December 2008, that i, a senior Saudi Arabian Islamic cleric, published a fatwa calling for attacks on Israeli interests worldwide “in response to the slaughtering which the Occupation is perpetrating in the Gaza Strip”. Awad Al-Qarni states in his fatwa: “I am publishing a religious ruling according to which all Israeli interests and anything which has an Israeli affinity, constitutes a legitimate target for the Moslems wherever it may be”. He added “The Zionists must be targets, and their blood must be shed as the blood of our brothers is being shed in Palestine”. Awad Al-Qarni Also stated that: “If not for the laxity of the Arabs and the involvement of some of the Arab governments in this conspiracy, the Zionists would not dare to perpetrate this slaughter”. Awad Al-Qarni has a Ph.D. in Islamic traditional law. He is employed as a lecturer at the King Khaled University in Saudi Arabia, as well at as other educational centers in the Kingdom. He is considered to be one of the harshest rivals of modernization and secularism in the Saudi arena and he frequently voices his radical opinions at the conferences which he attends, in his essays and his publications. Awad Al-Qarni is one of those who signed the opinion paper in March 2006, calling for the support of the Palestinian people and the Hamas, as well as the opinion paper of November 2004, signed by 26 Saudi clerics, who called for Jihad in Iraq.The Al-Faloja forum, which is identified with Global Jihad, called Al-Qarni the Mufti of the Al-Qaida organization in the Arabian Peninsula.

A previous post discussed Al-Qarni’s denials of the former Egyptian government accusations that he is part of the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood. In March 2006, Al-Qarni attended a conference in Bahrain that was also attended by leaders of the global Muslim Brotherhood including Youssef Qaradawi.